The present invention relates to the generation of a task in a network, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for generating a task to control a task-based device in a home network using universal plug and play (UPnP) and a recording medium storing a program for executing the method.
Device control methods in a home network using UPnP are divided into Web-based device control methods and remote procedure call (RPC)-based device control methods.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a conventional Web-based device control method. Referring to FIG. 1, a Web server 101 included in a controlled device 100 transfers a user interface (UI) that is an action provided by the Controlled device 100 using a hypertext markup language (HTML) to a control point 110. The control point 110 renders the UI using a Web browser 111 and provides the UI to a user. The user inputs user information via the UI. The control point 110 transfers the user information to the controlled device 100.
In the conventional Web-based device control method, the action of the controlled device 100 can be freely performed since the controlled device 100 generates the UI for controlling the controlled device 100, and all actions of the controlled device 100 can be used even if the control point 110 is aware of no action of the controlled device 100, thereby being possible to control the action of new controlled devices using old control points.
However, the conventional Web-based device control method cannot provide a service automated by the control point 110 or a service supplied by devices connected to a network to the user since the user personally sees contents of the UI and selects a desired service. That is, the control point 110 cannot directly control the controlled device 100 using the conventional Web-based device control method.
Meanwhile, RPC-based device control methods control an action based on previously agreed service standards.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a conventional RPC-based device control method. Referring to FIG. 2, a control point 200 generates a UI 201 based on service standards 220 previously agreed with a Controlled device 210 and provides the UI 201 to a user. The user selects a desired service based on the UI 201. The control point 200 generates a service request according to the service selected by the user and provides the service request to the Controlled device 210. The Controlled device 210 performs an action and returns a result obtained by performing the action based on the previously agreed service standards 220 to the control point 210.
The conventional RPC-based device control method provides a service to the user by combining actions provided from the control point 200 by the UI 201 of the control point 200 and provides a service supplied by devices connected to a network to the user by the UI 201 of the control point 200.
However, the conventional RPC-based device control method can provide the action provided by the Controlled device 210 based on the previously agreed service standards 220. To provide a new action, the conventional RPC-based device control method must define the new action according to the service standards to reflect the new action on the control point 200. Therefore, a control point operated based on old service standards cannot provide a service based on the new action.
A recently introduced task-based device control method cannot provide a service based on a new action since the method generates tasks of actions according to previously agreed service standards as in the RPC-based device control method.